


Not Such a Bad Day Afterall

by Tremble



Series: 10,000 Indrid & Duck Oneshots [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, but his fancy future-knowing-talk is def a form of echolalia, duck has a Si in plants, duck is autistic, duck is trans, hopefully not too ooc this is my first time writing them, indrid goes partially nonverbal, indrid is autistic, indrid is chaotic disaster gay and needs a Hug, it doesnt come up but like. . .just so you know, or partially verbal? i forgot the right term, you heard it here folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 17:31:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17370350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tremble/pseuds/Tremble
Summary: The futures Indrid saw were always different, but they followed the same patterns. He took comfort in those patterns and learned to predict the most likely outcomes. Even if trying to change those outcomes was a futile act, the least he could do was prepare himself. He could prepare himself and distance himself. There was no way he was ever going to get involved with changing destiny- it only ended up with heartbreak and guilt.When that abomination came and he contacted the pine guard, the futures shifted. Suddenly, that trio was everywhere. Out of those three, Duck showed up the most. Some futures showed a time where he and Duck got together. If he could choose which came true, those would be certain. And that is the problem that’s come up.Even with such powerful foresight, he didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.





	Not Such a Bad Day Afterall

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I might have projected super hard here, but hear me out. Also I haven't written anything in like 8,000 years and its past 4am so oops?  
> Anyway i'm in love with Indruck so if you have any ideas lemme know bc im super ready. 
> 
> No beta readers we die like men!

 

There are countless possibilities of timelines that are always changing to accommodate to the actions of the present. It doesn’t matter how much Indrid wanted certain futures to happen over others, he can’t choose which ones come true. The most he can do is try to push it one way or another- but even that fails most of the time. Or, his attempts use to fail every time.

The futures Indrid saw were always different, but they followed the same patterns. He took comfort in those patterns and learned to predict the most likely outcomes. Even if trying to change those outcomes was a futile act, the least he could do was prepare himself. He could prepare himself and distance himself. There was no way he was ever going to get involved with changing destiny- it only ended up with heartbreak and guilt.

When that abomination came and he contacted the pine guard, the futures shifted. Suddenly, that trio was everywhere. Out of those three, Duck showed up the most. Some futures showed a time where he and Duck got together. If he could choose which came true, those would be certain. And that is the problem that’s come up. 

Even with such powerful foresight, he didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.

 

* * *

 

Indrid took an inventory of his winnebago. It was the same dump as it always was- an abandoned cup in the corner has been growing a strange bacterial culture, crumpled up sketches and discarded clothing served as the floor, random odds and ends he’s picked up over the years were placed on any free flat surface. A trashcan in the kitchen area is overflowing with caprisun pouches.

Today has been a bit of an off day for Indrid. His glasses fell off in his sleep from a worse-than-usual nightmare. He woke up with an injured wing from the bad position he ended up in after his fitful sleep- a pain that traveled to his human disguise with an exhaustion he could feel to his bones. One of his space heaters finally died on him. It wasn’t a surprise- not many things can be. It had been on its last legs for a few weeks now. He knew it could have lasted another month at most, but that wasn’t in the cards he was given. Needless to say, he was in a bad mood.

Indrid leans against one of the working heaters, only partially relieved. The peaceful hum coming from the machine is going to get interrupted by a loud screeching outside. Indrid braces himself for the bird call, covering his ears with his hands. The sound is off-key and grating just as expected.

The sounds echo remains in his ears like an after-image. An uncomfortable crawling sensation zaps through his body like lightning, the bird yells again. Indrid cannot hold back a flinch as the feeling repeats itself more intensely. Seeing something happen and living through it are on two entirely different levels of things he can handle right now.

The bird stops and his body relaxes slowly. He planned to curl up directly besides a working heater for the rest of the day and taking a nap, but that might not be the best option.

There was around a good chance that he would have a visitor later today. There’s always the possibility somebody decides to come over, namely Duck, but it seems he’s planning to come by today. Around 70% of the possible futures show him showing up alone, 10% show Aubrey tagging along and the remaining 20% show Aubrey bringing Duck with her elsewhere before he has the chance to offer coming here with him.

Either way, he has to clean some dishes out, just in case. And also because if he doesn’t he’s going to kick himself later when he wants a drink and he knew they were all dirty. Indrid hunts for the cups scattered around the room. Most never make it there, destined to be buried under the piles of trash that’s built up. The best thing to do would be to finally do a massive clean up, but there are zero foreseeable futures when he does that without extreme prompting from Duck. But anyway why would he? He has nothing to prove and nobody to impress.

Maybe this wasn’t the most healthy living situation, but he wasn’t human- his habits won’t end up killing him. He prefers his home like this anyway. Open space frightens him- that is the easiest way to be spotted. The clutter gives him comfort.

Now all he has to do is clean enough cups for himself and some company to have one in case, he doesn’t need to uproot his whole life- he doesn’t even need to clean all of them. All he has to do is get up and get started.

Indrid doesn’t get up.

There is a twenty percent chance he can continue to sit here and nothing will happen; he will just sit there miserably until he can will himself to get up. Again he tries to forcibly change the future like humans desperately trying to use their nonexistent telekinesis to get the remote across the room.

Nothing happens.

Indrid gets up.

He stands by the heat for a moment, soaking up its warmth before carefully gathering as many cups and bowls as he can without dropping them- and then unceremoniously drops them all into the sink with a loud clatter. There are still some scattered about that he’s going to let stay there for the time being. Indrid was pretty proud of himself when he actually cleaned them all, that he gathered anyway, and put them away.

Running on some sort of cleaning-high, he cleared off the couch fully. By clearing off the couch, he just put everything on it into a growing pile in the corner- but it’s a great improvement. He even brushed the crumbled drawings on the table onto the floor instead and kicked them out of the way. It’s basically as good as new.

The futures shifted slightly, Aubrey is not coming with Duck. If he decides to come, which he probably will, it will just be them two.

  
Indrid hummed to himself, some tune from an old song. Bad morning aside, he was looking forward to some company now. He had forgotten what it was like to have friends and Duck is good to hang around with. They had a sort of understanding that went deeper than just their prophecy- like abilities. Times together never failed to be fun, somehow he never failed to surprise him. Which, obviously, is a feat just by itself. Honestly, Indrid just liked Duck, he was good.

 He’s spent so many decades alone, too afraid to get close to anybody in case they learn who he is or worse- if he gets attached to them. Disaster follows him. Or maybe now ‘follows,’ but he always sees potential disaster no matter where he looks and trying to help often made it worse. Sure, he was lonely most of the time, but he got use to it. After being exiled, it hurt a lot worse than it does now. It’ll hurt worse later on if he did get too attached to anybody.

That was the moment it hit him. He was happy in a way he hasn’t felt since before his exile. He made a mistake. He remembered the reason he’s been alone for so long- but that wasn’t it. The mistake was forgetting the reason he’s been alone for so long. He made a rule to himself to prevent pain and he broke it. He should have left earlier when he was going to.

“Fuck,” he cursed to himself and sat down on the newly-cleared couch with his head in his hands. He searched far into the future. He saw Duck in all of them, he kept going. There were so many possibilities, and he knows looking this far out is stupid because there’s barely any accuracy besides the vaguest possible occurrences or events immune to their decisions, but he looked anyway. He looked to see if he was wrong to stay.

There are countless ways Duck dies in battle or of natural causes. There are countless outcomes they are close- closer than he ever allowed himself to hope or on less amicable terms. There are both good endings and bad endings of which he had no certainty of, but one thing always remained. Indrid is Sylvain. Sure, there are millions of times where he dies, but to befriend a human would always end badly and to love one would be worse. With Duck it could be bad, with Aubrey and Ned that wouldn't change. Even good endings eventually hurt.

All of his earlier excitement is gone, as if it was never there. This day took a turn for the worst. Now, all he knew was that Duck could not come here- he could never come here. Indrid doesn’t know if leaving would be better or not later on, but he knows he has to stay for now. He has to help as much as he can to avoid bad endings, and that includes his own.

It’s going to hurt now to be alone again, but he has no other choice. He makes a phone call in every possible timeline. There’s a fifty-fifty shot he gets what he wants depending on how well he handles himself on the call, but that’s already better than the odds he’ll have of doing nothing.

He doesn’t want to push them away, he feels like his heart is tearing itself apart- but he knows he has to. Indrid picks up his phone and dials Ducks number, he will answer. He always does.

“Duck. Don’t come here.” Indrid speaks the exact moment the phone connects.

“Indrid? I thought about it and decided to come tomorrow instead-” 

“ **Why? What’s wrong?** ” They both speak at the same time, Indrid overlaying Ducks question.

Indrid is mentally kicking himself, this was going to be one of the times Duck didn’t come over. Now there is no possibility where Duck stays home. His mind runs a mile a minute, he knows he’s been hopeless at changing his predictions. Duck always does though, maybe he can too.

“ **Indrid?** ” Indrid overlays his question again, taking too long to respond to the first one.

“Yes,” Indrid finally replies, sounding a bit frazzled,”Yes sorry, I was- looking. Uh- Duck. I need you to do something for me, it’s important.”

“Yeah uh- 0f course buddy,” Indrids heart breaks further with the endearment,”Whatcha need?”

“I need you- and Duck you have to listen to me. I need you to stay away from here. It isn’t, safe?” Indrid regrets the words before they even come out.

“Isn’t safe? The abominations aren’t set to come out yet. Some wildlife giving you trouble? Y’know i’m the best man to help with that.”

“No!” Indrid knows he’s digging his own grave, he’s losing and he refuses to believe it. “Not that. You- . . .you can’t.”

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on but, you don’t sound good there so I’m coming over.”

“Wait- Duck!” Indrids voice cracks in the middle, giving away the second reason he doesn’t want him coming. He doesn’t want to be seen like this.

“Indrid, man, listen to me. You don’t gotta go through this shit alone. Hang tight alright? I’ll be there soon.” Indrid nods and hangs up the phone, forgetting that Duck can’t see him.

Letting out a shaky breath, he drops the phone and brings his knees up to his chest. Everything feels like too much. The clothes on his skin feel rough and the empty space around him makes him feel exposed. He shuffles over to the nearest heater and leans against it, curling up into himself.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this ever was supposed to happen. He feels tears prickle in his eyes. People have more important problems, he knows this. People have work and families to worry about, the pine guard and the rest of amnesty lodge have to worry about the abominations. Sylvain has a lot more to worry about. He barely has anything, what right does he have to be upset.

His visions flash in his mind, neverending. Duck will be here soon, he will ask a lot of questions- too many questions. He won’t know how to answer them. Every single possibility Duck is nicer to him than he deserves. Every possibility brings a different outcome. It’s so hard to know with him, he’s an outlier in his predictions, an unknown element. He can’t prepare properly, not when he’s given so much.

Then there’s the other futures. He can barely even focus on the ones directly related to him, nevermind the constant shifting paths from everybody else in Kepler- everybody else in the world. A bird will fall out of its nest, a a group of kids will flunk the same test, Ned uses the same bullshit on a hundred different tourists, Stern will complicate every possible mission in countless different ways. He can’t comprehend a single vision, lost in a sea of thoughts he’s never had any control over.

Sometime during that Indrid picked up a pencil, holding it tightly in his hand. Subconsciously, he was going to draw them as he always does, but instead of dutifully recording the pencil cracks from the pressure. Then, a knock at his door catches his attention. It had been awhile since he lost track of time so badly.

Indrid gets up to his feet and wipes away the tears he didn’t know were still falling. He opens the door moments before Duck tries knocking a second time. Pulling a wide smile that would fool anybody other than Duck, he steps aside to let him in.

“Sorry about that,” Indrid gestures to the clear couch, ”Please. Take a seat.”  For the hundredth time, Indrid remains thankful for the privacy his glasses give him, he doesn’t have to force eye contact if his eyes aren’t visible.

Duck sits down, Indrid following shortly after, “Wow it looks like you- “

“ **Cleaned up a bit since last time.** ” Indrid speaks with duck.

“Yes, Not too long ago I fixed it up a little bit. If I’m going to have company more often I figured they should be able to walk without worry.” Indrid continued speaking while looking into the future, trying to find out where this is going and trying his best to act like he wasn’t dying inside.

Indrid fiddles with the cracked pencil in his hand. He makes a mental note to get some more soon, most of his remaining pencils are lost or need to be sharpened. . .which he can’t do because the sharpener is also lost. He pays attention to Duck as he speaks. He asks if he’s alright, of course not but he doesn't say that. Indrid can lie sometimes at least. Duck doesn’t believe him, mentioning how he sounded earlier on the phone and asks what happened.

“ _What happened?_ I don’t know what you’re talking about Duck, nothing is wrong. Aubrey was going to hang out with you and I didn’t want you to be stuck here instead.” Indrid replies with a semi-plausible truth.

“Indrid, I” He realizes his mistake too late again, “I haven’t said anything yet. I wasn’t even gonna say that. Look, there’s something obviously wrong here and if you really don’t feel comfortable telling me what it is that’s fine, I won’t push you.”

Saying nothing, Indrid nods. He doesn’t trust his voice right now, and he trusts his eyes even less with how they’re starting to tear up again. He’s a grown man, he should be able to hold his composure for five minutes. There are so many things he wants to say. He wants to tell him how much he appreciates that and he wants to spill everything he’s been dealing with the past years, but his words die before they’re even fully thought.

Duck shifts, slightly uncomfortable and drums his fingers along his thigh, “Sorry I-uh, I’m not very good at this.” Indrid wants to interject, tell him that he shouldn’t be sorry- that he’s doing wonderful, but his words haven’t returned.

Duck continues uninterrupted, “Maybe I shoulda listened now that I think about it. Fuck, coming here anyway was probably a shitty thing to do wasn’t it? I’ve invaded your privacy and all that. Okay- well, If you want me to go back home I can go, but lemme just say something before I go.

“I understand h- wait that might not be true. I don’t know what’s bothering you and I can’t promise to understand it, but I can promise to be here for you. I’ll listen, be a shoulder to cry on or try to get your mind off it. Really just- just know you’re not all alone anymore. We’re friends now; let me know what you need right now.”

Duck is looking at Indrid expectantly. Indrid doesn’t know how to get his words to work again, he doesn’t know what he should do, all he knows is that he doesn’t want Duck to leave and that he’s too far in now. He lets the tears run down his face, knowing it’s futile to try to stop them. He tenses, seeing Duck going for a hug.

“Shit,” Duck curses and pulls back before touching his friend, “Shit Shit, do you want a hug or something? Some ‘nog?”

Before Duck stands up, Indrid takes hold of Ducks left hand; it’s all he can handle right now. Holding onto it with both of his own like a lifeline, he tries to gather his thoughts together, separate them from the visions and calm down. Naturally, he only riles himself up worse.

Duck lets his hand be stolen, “Hey, hey what’s going on? I won’t leave, okay? I’m here.”

Indrid brings his knees to his chest and keeps the hand hostage. He’s in too far deep, there is no way this ends well. He cries as silently as he can, trying to take up as little space as possible. Internally, he curses this “blessing” of his. He’s spent so much of his life alone now and miserable, running away and afraid of the very world he’s grown to love. He’s barred himself away from other people even though that’s all he ever wanted all because this gift ruins everything. He’s acted like its alright because it’s the only thing he can do. Even now he lives so close to other Sylvain people and yet, he stays away.

“Are those too open for you? How about yes or no, you can nod your head or give me a-” Duck stops to laugh quietly when Indrid holds a thumbs up before Duck can even suggest it,”Guess that works.”

“Do you need me to get you anything?” Thumbs down.

“Do you want to just cry it out first?” Indrid just shrugs and sniffles, hiding his face from view.

“Alright, uh, do you want a-”

“ **Distraction,** ” They say at the same time. Indrids voice was barely audible over Ducks.

“There’s that voice of yours. I can tell you some stories- they probably won’t be great. Or I can tell you about some of the vegetation we have around here?” Indrid has a thumbs up before the end of Ducks offer.

Duck began to talk about the plants he sees. He was uncertain at first, but became relieved when Indrid relaxed the death grip on his hand. He was never one to give up a chance to infodump about his special interest, but helping somebody by doing that was practically unheard of until now.

Indrid focused on the present, on the words Duck was saying and pushed away everything else. Now, it was time to calm down. He could figure out everything else later on. Slowly, he scoots over in the couch so he’s sitting next to Duck, and then leaning on duck.

Duck doesn’t say anything about it, only pauses and smiles. He doesn’t even say anything when Indrid holds onto his whole arm instead of just his hand. He just gently squeezes Indrid hand and goes on to tell him all the funny things he caught teenagers doing.

Even though Duck was the only one talking, it had felt like a conversation. Duck took all of his gestures and expressions as responses and never pressured him to talk, smiled with him even when Indrid laughed too early. (Indrid cocked his head to the side, “I know right? Who would think to do that?” When Indrid made a face, he responded “Yeah, gross. I had to see that with my own eyes.” When Indrid laughed, Duck laughed along with him- struggling to even get to the funny part because his laugh was just so contagious and adorable.)

“Hey, just thought I’d offer this time. Do you want-”

“ **That hug now?** ” Indrid overlayed his question yet again. This time talking back in his normal voice.

Duck hesitated,”Was that just you doing your thing or is that uh a-”

“ **Yes?** ” Indrid copied again, this time nodding his head as confirmation.

Duck wrapped his arms around him and Indrid hugged back tightly, underestimating just how touch-starved he’s been. He crawls onto Ducks lap without thinking much of it and pushes his face into his shoulder, ignoring the awkward position his glasses got into.

From the outside, Indrids tall body hunched over Duck would look weird. Neither of them cared. Duck just absentmindedly ran his hand through Indrids hair and told him ‘It’s gonna be alright.’ He relished the feeling of holding Indrid like this, just as Indrid felt about being held like that.

Indrid felt like he should say something again, a thank you or a heartfelt confession. Instead, he grabs hold of Ducks hand again and hopes he understands the same meaning. And in a split second, a new future opens up just as Duck acts upon it.

“Hey uh, this is probably bad timing considering y’know, but Indrid I,” Duck takes a breath to compose himself.

“ **I really like you.** ” They say concurrently.

Indrid looks straight at Duck, and gently puts his hands on his face. He immediately stops his stammering and every future where Duck asks for clarification disappears. Indrid lowers his glasses just low enough for Duck to see straight into his dark red eyes.

“As it just so happens, I really like you too Duck.” Then, he pushes his glasses back up and leans in for a kiss he knows will get reciprocated.

Duck never failed to surprise him. Of all the ways they have gotten together and all the ways they ultimately didn’t get together, this was a new one.

Earlier, he felt like he had no other choice, like he could either cause more suffering or suffer alone. Now though, he remembered something. There’s always another choice, a third option even if he doesn’t see it right away. Maybe it’s because he can see into the future that he is so bad at living in the moment. He can be happy too instead of worried all the time. Perhaps being close with Duck won’t be so bad after all. . . .

Later he’ll talk about his fear, but for now he was fully content to just lay down with Duck and relax.


End file.
